Posts Tagged ‘Chattanooga Theatre Centre’

There’s gangsters, stock brokers, a debutante and her high society fiance, a missionary, a night club evangelist and her tap dancing angels on board the SS American ship across the trans-Atlantic in ‘Anything Goes’. CTC’s George Quick directs this production of the Cole Porter musical from the 1930’s. The show opens Friday night, July 13th on the Main Stage in Chattanooga’s theatre by the river. Here’s more from the press release:

When the S.S. American heads out to sea, etiquette and convention head out the portholes as two unlikely pairs set off on the course to true love… proving that sometimes destiny needs a little help from a crew of singing sailors, an exotic disguise and some good old-fashioned blackmail. Anything Goes is a shining example of classic musical theater, complete with amazing tap numbers, campy jokes, unlikely happy endings and eminently hummable songs like “De-Lovely,” “I Get a Kick Out Of You” and “Anything Goes,” courtesy of the unforgettable score by Cole Porter.

Here’s the video preview of CTC’s ‘Anything Goes’ by Wadell and Associates:

CTC opens Hair on the Circle stage on June 15th, 2012. The following is from the press release:

Book and Lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni. Music by Galt MacDermot
Meet The Tribe, a group of politically active hippies of the “Age of Aquarius” living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting the draft in the rock-musical, Hair. The show grew out of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, and the musical’s profanity, its sexuality, and its irreverence caused controversy when it debuted off-Broadway in 1967. After moving to Broadway the following year, it ran for 1,750 performances and its songs became anthems of the peace movement. A Broadway revival opened in 2009, earning strong reviews and winning the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for best revival of a musical. Age has not lessened the powerful impact of this four-decades-old musical, as Time magazine reports: “Today Hair seems, if anything, more daring than ever.”

Hair, the theatrical love-in is one of a kind. The play came out of the Greenwich Village theater scene in the late 60’s and rose quickly to the Broadway stage with its experimental art forms and rock songs that became top 40 hits. Hair was banned from debuting in Chattanooga in the early 1970’s for what Memorial Auditorium board members believed were obscene acts within the play. The musical had been banned by other cities, including Boston. Lawsuits were filed in both cities and both worked their way to the Supreme Court. It was ruled in the Chattanooga case that that the Auditorium Board had shown unlawful prior restraint. To read more about the case, click here.

45 years later, this tribal rock musical is more popular than ever. CTC’s Artistic Director Scott Dunlap calls ‘Hair’ a, “Perfect little time capsule,” of the late 1960’s with it’s many and varied references from the perspective of the Hippie culture rising out of the ashes of the Vietnam War. This musical revival may be a kind of euphoric lament in 2012, having found no utopic,”Age of Aquarius,” to speak of.

To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of this Agatha Christie mystery play, The Chattanooga Theatre Centre opens with Mousetrap March 16th, 2012. Here’s more from the Press Release:

The plot of the Agatha Christie mystery has all the elements of a classic thriller: A group of strangers are stranded in a boarding house during a snowstorm. One of them a murderer. The suspects include the newlyweds who run the house (Lauren Johnson and Tim Newland); a spinster with a curious background (Lizzie Chazen); an architect who seems better equipped to be a chef (Justin Bridges); a retired Army major (Greg Rambin); a strange man who claims his car has overturned in a snowdrift (Jerry Draper); and a jurist who makes life miserable for everyone (Julie Van Valkenburg). Into their midst, arriving on skis, comes a policeman (Will Park) who, in order to discern the murderer’s pattern, probes the background of everyone present and rattles a lot of skeletons. Another famous Agatha Christie switch finish! A superb intrigue from the foremost mystery writer of her time.

Cast of "Mousetrap"

Everyone in the snow-covered boarding house is a suspect in this Agatha Christie ‘whodunit’ including (seated from left) Julie Van Valkenburg, Jerry Draper, and Greg Rambin. Standing, from left, Lizzie Chazen, Lauren Johnson, Will Park, Tim Newland, and Justin Bridges.

“The Mousetrap” began as a short BBC radio play entitled “Three Blind Mice” written at the request of Queen Mary. The extended work opened on the London stage as “The Mousetrap” in 1952 and has played for 60 years.

Chattanooga Theatre Centre brings this Youth theatre show to the Circle Stage. The original by Hans Christian Anderson has been re-envisioned by Youth Theatre Director Maria Chattin Carter and the young cast. CTC’s, “Emperor’s New Clothes” is set in an old Vaudeville Theatre house and features stock Vaudeville characters like a sad clown, a magician and his assistant, acrobats, a ventriloquist/fortune teller, little dancing girls, two scoundrel costumers and a grandiose lead actor known as the Emperor.

CTC’s press release gives dates and times and a brief synopsis:

Public Shows: Dec. 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, and 18 (Friday shows at 7:30pm and Sat. and Sun. at 2:30pm)
School group performances are available. Please call the Box Office at (423) 267-8534 for dates and times.

Festival season is upon the land and the narcissistic emperor needs new duds. Two con men take advantage of the wonderful emperor and possibly teach him a much-needed lesson. This is sure to be a funny, fast-paced comedy the whole family will enjoy.

Irish Dramatist Oscar Wilde once wrote, “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” His words would prove prophetic as the last five years in the life of this Victorian Age artist would turn out to be anything but laughable.

Modern Playwright Moises Kaufman compiled personal letters and documents written by Wilde along with transcripts from the three trials, newspaper reports, etc., to bring to life the three fated trials that Oscar Wilde was to endure. Then in 1997 Kaufman published, “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.”

The Chattanooga Theatre Centre opens with “Gross Indecency” on the Circle Stage on November 4th-19th. George Quick directs this play. The following is from CTC’s press release:

Playwright Moisés Kaufman has created a riveting docudrama, courtroom drama, social commentary, tragedy and comedy in Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. A brilliant patchwork of contemporary court documents, newspaper accounts and books by and about Wilde, the play deals with Oscar Wilde’s three trials on the matter of his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas which led to charges of “committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons”. The play uses actual quotes and transcripts from the trials, including Wilde’s inimitable witticisms that ultimately were his undoing.

In April of 2011, The Guardian writes that the original, uncensored version of Oscar Wilde’s one novel, “The Picture of Dorian Grey” written 130 years earlier had finally been published. Moises Kaufman has brought back to life the power of Oscar Wilde’s character and the views of the Victorian Culture that would first thrust him to fame and then condemn him to a prison sentence of two years of hard labor with, “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.”

Do you have a play that you’ve written and would like to see produced? CTC has a call out for new play submissions.

Deadline Approaching to SubmitScripts for The 7th Biennial Festival of New Plays

at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre

Just over a week remains for local playwrights to submit original scripts to the Chattanooga Theatre Centre for possible production in the Theatre Centre’s 7th Biennial Festival of New Plays. Deadline is November 11, 2011. Scripts must be delivered by hand by 5:00 on that day or sent by mail postmarked no later than that date.

Up to four selected scripts will receive productions as part of the Festival of New Plays April 13 through April 29, 2012. One script will receive a fully staged production on CTC’s MainStage including sets, costumes, lighting and sound. This first-prize winning playwright will be awarded a $1,000 cash prize. Three plays will be presented as Staged Readings in CTC’s Circle Theatre and those playwrights will be awarded cash prizes of $250 each.

Any playwright living in Tennessee or residing within a 100-mile radius of Chattanooga outside the state of Tennessee is eligible. For more information including a complete list of rules about script submission for the 7th Biennial Festival of New Plays, visit the Chattanooga Theatre Centre website at TheatreCentre.com.

Playwrights should submit scripts and cover letters, along with a submission fee of $25 per script, to the address below.

CTC produces this Howard Richardson play for the Main Stage October 14th-30th, 2011. Here’s more from the Press Release:

Set in Appalachia and told in a rich, mountain dialect, the play tells the story of John, a witch boy who seeks to become human after falling in love with a human girl, Barbara Allen. Originally written as a dramatization of the centuries-old, European folk song “The Ballad of Barbara Allen.” This haunting play featuring the bluegrass sounds of talented local musicians arrives on our MainStage just in time for Halloween!

Co-Producer: Blowing Screams Farm

Costume/Scenic Underwriter: AT&T Tennessee

Captioning Underwriter: Barnett & Company

Opening Night Reception Sponsor: Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling Co

This production is directed by Scott Dunlap and stars Lebron Lackey and Joanna Key, who are pictured below.

Maria Chattin Carter directs this adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein written by Education Director Chuck Tuttle for this Chattanooga Theatre Centre Youth production. Carter has chosen to stage Frankenstein as a melodrama. Indeed, author James Berardinelli wrote that Mary Shelley’s novel is, “More of a gothic melodrama than a horror story.” Carter tells the actors, “You have to take those moments and make them bigger,” in true melodramatic fashion.

Frankenstein has been double cast to cover the day-time performances for schools. The casts are as follows:

The Orange Cast

Dr. Frankenstein……Savage Glascock

Creature………Noah Phillips

Elizabeth……………Katie Ward

Mary/ Grave Digger #1……………Breanna Ingram

Igor………….Charlie Christopher

Priest/Captain Walton…………Willie Derrick

Cleval/Richard/Villager…………..Noah Kominczak

DeLancy……………….Anna Strickland

Felix/Grave Digger#2…………Bradley Miller

Agatha/Villager…………..Cameron Davis

Mrs. Frugelheim/Justine/Villager………..Amy Hartline

Greta/Villager…………….Dory Goocher

Eliza/Frieda……….Andrea Palmer

Young Victor/Fritz…………Brady Saffles

Black Cast

Dr. Frankenstein………..Zeke Cobb

Creature………Joe McGuire

Elizabeth…………..Alexis Newson

Mary/Grave Digger #1………..Lizzie Ruch

Igor…………..Jared Alexander

Priest/Captain Walton……….AJ Rankin

Cleval/Richard/Villager…………Jordan Alexander

DeLancy………….Holly Alexander

Felix/Grave Digger #2……..Joshua Anderle

Agatha/ Villager………..Haley White

Mrs. Frugelheim/ Justine/ Villager……….Skyler Beene

Greta/ Villager…….Lexie DeHart

Eliza/ Frieda……….Elizabeth Van Duesen

Young Victor/ Fritz………..Mason Carter

CTC has written this about the upcoming production:

Public Shows: Sept. 30, Oct. 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, and 16(Friday shows at 7:30pm and Sat. and Sun. at 2:30pm)
School group performances are available. Please call the Box Office at (423) 267-8534 for dates and times.

Based on Mary Shelley’s novel, one of the world’s most famous of horror stories demonstrates that we all need to have a place we feel we fit in and begs the question of our own creation. It also makes the point that there must be someone out there for everyone. A thought-provoking piece that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Appropriate grades 4th-12th

Corporate Sponsor: Aretha Frankenstein’s

Many of the youth said that the Mel Brooks film, “Young Frankenstein” is their favorite version of Shelley’s monster creation story.

The Chattanooga Theatre Centre presents stories gathered by war historian, collector and re-enactor Louis Varnell highlighting the experiences of soldiers who served during World War 2.

by Louis Varnell
“Imagine flying over Tokyo. The bomb doors are open and there’s an armed bomb hung up on the door. What would you do? Not many survive to tell the tale but one did and we tell his story along with others who fought in Europe and the Pacific. Louis Varnell, Director of the Southeast Veteran’s Museum, has spent his career listening to the stories of veterans from around this area. Now he is bringing them to you in this hair-raising, sometimes touching and funny, one-man show. These are not the stories from history books, but the stories behind the history: the guy in the foxhole, ball turret, and hanging from the anchor chain. If you ever wondered what this war was like for those fought it, you must see this show.”

Maria Chattin-Carter plays Julie, a woman who gets a pink slip after rejecting the advances of her boss and is drinking to forget. Stephanie Smith plays Alice, whose anger over her boyfriend’s return to his wife pushes her into an eating binge. The drunk Julie and the overfed Alice hatch a plan: pick a guy – any guy – and rape him to get even for the damage done to them by men. Enter the pizza delivery man – played by Seth Patton – who accepts their seemingly harmless invitation to stay and share a beer with them. From there the evening gets crazy, wild, angry, and very, very funny.

If CTC’s production wins best community theatre production in Tennessee from TTA then the performance will go on to compete at Southeastern Theatre Conference in March 2012. SETC is known as one of the largest theatre conventions in the United States. SETC has been hosting the annual convention since 1949 making it a “haven” for theatre artists according to Maria Chattin Carter who is co-starring in the Pizza Man for the competition.

Join over 4,000 theatre artists and practitioners for the southeast’s largest theatre convention!

Known as one of the nation’s largest Theatre conventions, the SETC Annual Spring Convention is held each year during the first week in March. Convention 2012 will be held March 7-11 in Chattanooga, TN. Registration will open on Oct. 15, 2011.